Within the Operational Programme “Science and Education for Smart Growth 2014 - 2020” 4 projects for “Creation and Development of Centres of Excellence” and 8 projects for “Creation and Development of Centres of Competence” will be funded.

A total of 11 proposals for Centres of Excellence (CoE) and 33 proposals for Centres of Competence (CoC) have been submitted.

In order to evaluate the proposals received, independent international evaluators with professional experience in the following areas of scientific research need to be engaged:

-Mathematical sciences and informatics;

-Natural sciences;

-Technical sciences;

-Medical sciences;

-Agricultural sciences;

-Social sciences and humanities.

Therefore, the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Bulgaria has launched a competitive call for recruitment of external evaluators. The applicants can submit their applications till 18.04.2017 in one of the following ways:

-Electronically – to the following email address: [email protected]. The application and the appendices to it need to be signed by the Applicant and attached as scanned copies.

-By fax: to fax no.  + 359 2 940 2526

-Delivered personally, by courier or by post to the following address:

   To the Central Coordination Unit Directorate

   Council of Ministers of the Republic of Bulgaria

   1 Dondukov Avenue

   1594 Sofia, Bulgaria

The minimum set of documents required for successful application should contain the following:

-Application to participate in the competitive call – please use the model form of application (as attached here);

-Declaration - please use the provided model form of declaration (as attached here);

-List of scientific publications which certifies that the candidate has published at least one article in 10 different calendar years with a web-address in Web of Science, SCOPUS and/or Harzing’s Publish or Perish databases, allowing a verification check of the list;

-A copy signed by the applicant of the front page(s) of the monograph (only for social sciences and humanities) showing the title of the monograph, the publishing house and the year of publication.

The remuneration of the external evaluators complies with the daily rate of the European Research Council, which is 450 euros.

The methodology under which the Managing Authority of the Operational Programme “Science and Education for Smart Growth 2014-2020” will select the candidates can be found HERE

The expected period for proposal evaluation is from 15^th May 2017 to 15^th July 2017. The evaluation will be carried out via an electronic information system and will include evaluation of the following:

-the proposed structure of the Centres;

-the R&D programmes;

-the Plan to use the newly-built research infrastructure;

-the scientific, administrative and management capacity of the Project Team;

-the scientific potential of the applying research organisation;

-the economic impact of the research programme;

-the Financing Plan.

Additional information about the official invitation is available HERE.